The 10 Best Graphics Cards

This wiki has been updated 20 times since it was first published in March of 2016. The graphics card is one of the most important components in a PC and can make or break the entertainment or work experience. Available in a huge range of prices, there are models of varying video capabilities to suit the needs of everyday users, gaming enthusiasts, and professional designers and engineers. We've selected some of the most powerful GPUs as well as the most affordable.
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This wiki has been updated 20 times since it was first published in March of 2016. The graphics card is one of the most important components in a PC and can make or break the entertainment or work experience. Available in a huge range of prices, there are models of varying video capabilities to suit the needs of everyday users, gaming enthusiasts, and professional designers and engineers. We've selected some of the most powerful GPUs as well as the most affordable.
When users buy our independently chosen editorial
picks,
we may earn commissions to
help fund the Wiki.
Skip to the best graphics card on Amazon.

10. Gigabyte GTX 1650

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One of the few modern add-in boards small enough to fit in a mini-ITX build, the Gigabyte GTX 1650 has the rare distinction of drawing electricity exclusively from the PCI-E slot, so you likely won't have to upgrade the power supply if you're installing it in an older PC.

9. MSI Radeon VII

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One of the first produced with 7-nanometer transistors, the MSI Radeon VII is faster than all but the newest GPUs. It uses Intel's cutting-edge 4,096-bit HBM2 memory, which offers bandwidth unrivaled by anything else in the category.

8. XFX Radeon RX 590

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One of the more recent AMD designs to be released, the XFX Radeon RX 590 promises effective performance and a reasonable price tag. Its zero-decibel fan technology keeps it quiet under minimal loads, making it a great choice for a home theater PC.

7. EVGA RTX 2080 Ti

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In case you insist on having the absolute best, it's hard to beat the EVGA RTX 2080 Ti, which is one of the fastest variants of the most high-powered chipset currently available. It's so powerful that it outpaces even the workstation-level cards from prior generations.

6. Gigabyte GTX 1660 TI

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Heralded as the new king of 1080p gaming, the Gigabyte GTX 1660 TI uses a 192-bit pathway to provide exceptional memory bandwidth, allowing it to buffer frames with increased efficiency and deliver refresh rates consistently higher than the base model 1660.

5. EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 XC

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The EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 XC is among the best models for taking advantage of Nvidia's ray tracing and deep learning technologies without having to drop a ridiculous amount of cash. Owners of the newest high-end monitors and VR headsets should give it strong consideration.

4. AsRock Radeon RX 570

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While the chipset at its heart is a relatively old one, the AsRock Radeon RX 570 actually outperforms some of Nvidia's brand-new releases. Priced at under $200, it's perfect for a budget gaming rig, as long as you don't turn the visual settings up to ultra.

3. Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 OC

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If you're not concerned with crazy-high refresh rates, the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 OC is one of the least expensive ways to get your hands on a new chipset. It doesn't really have any bells or whistles, but it's a decent option for staying close to the cutting edge.

2. EVGA GeForce RTX 2070

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For those interested in the latest AAA titles, the EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 will let you run nearly anything at impressive frame rates without breaking the bank. It boasts 8 gigabytes of ultra-fast GDDR6 memory that has a bandwidth of almost half a terabyte per second.

1. Zotac GeForce RTX 2060

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One of the newest models to hit the market, the Zotac GeForce RTX 2060 is an all-around good buy, as it's easily capable of smooth 1440p gaming at high-level settings and comes in at a price hundreds of dollars below its faster counterparts.

Editor's Notes

April 24, 2019:

It was surely an exciting ride, but thankfully, we have left behind the dark days when even the average 3D gaming enthusiast was nearly forced to sell body parts just to buy a passable GPU. That's not to say that high performance is suddenly inexpensive -- or that those older cards have dropped in price with the release of new technology, because they haven't -- but we're finally seeing a wide range of hardware that doesn't elicit an "oof" as soon as you see the sticker. So we've compiled some of the most lauded variants of the most capable chipsets around.

To that end, it shouldn't be a surprise that the top spots go to Nvidia's brand new line of RTX cards. the 2060 is just about the best overall value out of everything on the market right now, and its mid-range price won't hit most users too hard. If you're looking for an upgrade, it's hard to go wrong with the 2070, and all but the most demanding gamers will be satisfied with it. On the other hand, the 1660 is ideal for those who stick to low-intensity games, and it's priced as such. The 1660 Ti is an excellent video card as well, and does a killer job at pumping out 1080p titles smoothly, though it occupies a somewhat middling spot: for just about $50 more, you could spring for the noticeably more powerful 2060. And if you want buttery-smooth 1440p gaming on even the newest games, the 2080 is a great choice, though it is considerably costly.

I could go on about how impressive the 2080 Ti is, but the fact is that it costs an absolutely ridiculous amount of money. If you're willing to make that investment, the EVGA model we've highlighted is consistently viewed as one of the best, though all of EVGA's closely related variants are of great quality. I'd also like to mention that, according to vendors, RMA of the 2080 Ti has finally sunk to the same rate as those of other cards, which means that the memory issues that the card experienced at launch appear to have been fixed. Do be aware, however, that the 2080 Ti requires a power supply that is not only powerful, but can also support multi-rail configurations using two independent 8-pin power cables, rather than a split adapter. In other words, it takes a considerable amount of tech know-how to ensure that your installation is appropriate and safe.

Nvidia's 1650 is the most recent chipset to come out, and it will be followed by the Ti version soon, but know that the base 1650 isn't really ideal for gaming. It's outperformed by multiple of the AMD models we've covered in this list. It is a great option for everyday PC usage though.

Speaking of AMD, they do have some great offerings. The 570 is about as cheap as a video card gets nowadays, and it performs surprisingly well. The 590 is one of the most recent releases, and likely the last Polaris-based model, and it's more efficient than its predecessors. Finally, the Radeon VII is so named because of its 7nm transistors, and it performs similarly to the RTX 2080, plus it's priced about the same as well. Its unmatched 16GB of high-bandwidth memory make it able to hold multiple buffered frames at high resolutions, which is great for 4k performance.

The Four Most Important Things to Know about Graphics Cards

The greater the memory interface width, the quicker your card can render those graphics.

Can you even fit a 750-watt power supply, which is going to be twice the dimensions of a 250-watt supply, in your current case?

Every time you upgrade one piece of hardware in your beast of a desktop PC, you always have to consider whether or not the rest of the hardware can handle it. A motherboard without PCI Express 3.0 is not going to support a current generation graphics card and a current generation graphics card is not going to accept anything less than a 400-watt power supply.

Knowing that the most important aspect of a high-end graphics card is whether or not it will support the maximum settings on the most recent games, the fact still remains that you cannot take advantage of such a card if you don't have the power to run it.

Thus, the first thing you need to know about your new graphics card is whether or not you have the wattage to get so much as the fans up and running. Does it require a 750-watt power supply? Can you even fit a 750-watt power supply, which is going to be twice the dimensions of a 250-watt supply, in your current case? If not, chances are your motherboard is too small, you may not have enough dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), and your processor may be behind the times.

In the event you already have enough power to run your card of choice, there are three other things worth taking into consideration: video RAM (VRAM), memory interface width, and clock speed.

The more VRAM your card has, the higher the resolution at which your card can render graphics in real-time. The greater the memory interface width, the quicker your card can render those graphics. The higher the clock speed, the faster your graphics card can process the data stored by the VRAM.

Thus, these three things can be prioritized in order: the more data you store, the more data you have to work with, and the more data you have to work with, the more inclined you are to maintain the highest possible speed.

Understanding the Law of Diminishing Returns

While shopping around for a new graphics card, we often come across the term diminishing returns--a term that applies, in our case, to both the prices of graphics cards and the number of polygons used in computer graphics during the video game development process.

Diminishing returns due to increases in the number of polygons used directly affect the diminishing returns we experience as the prices of graphics cards begin to exceed a community agreed-upon amount; about $325 as of last year; about $400 today.

As computer-generated imagery (CGI) artists double the number of polygons they use while generating a particular image, from 2,000 polygons to 4,000 to 8,000 and so on, the difference in quality between subsequent generations becomes less and less noticeable to the untrained eye. Thus, the difference between the original Xbox and the Xbox 360 is much more drastic than the difference between the Xbox 360 and the Xbox One, despite the fact the first and second consoles were released three years apart while the second and third were released eight years apart.

By comparison, more recent advancements in computer graphics technology have resulted in marginally better graphics than prior advancements made between, say, the original 16-bit Nintendo and the 32-bit Super Nintendo. As a result, what we end up with are price-based diminishing returns that help us to determine where to draw the line on cost while shopping around for graphics cards that best suit our needs.

On the one hand, a graphics card capable of displaying 4,000 polygons is going to be drastically better than a card only capable of displaying 2,000 polygons, but the price will be marginally different. On the other hand, a graphics card capable of displaying 2,000,000 polygons is going to be drastically more expensive than a card only capable of displaying 1,000,000 polygons, but the image quality will only be marginally different, and may even be unnoticeable to customers that don't fancy themselves videophiles.

When Graphics Cards Are Too Big for Their Britches

One of the main issues with purchasing a current graphics card, an issue consumers never seemed to have in the past, is the ever-increasing size of the cards. Due to overclocking and the need for upwards of three large fans, thin cards that once fit snugly in PCI slots at right angles perfect enough to balance marbles on, are now fat cards that sag at obtuse angles to the point their immense weight has been known to tear PCI slots straight out of the motherboard if not given additional support; support not supplied by the manufacturers of either the over-sized graphics cards or the computer cases that houses them.

Do you have the engineering skills to prop it up with sticks or toys?

What consumers end up with is the need to use household items that would otherwise never be seen inside a computer case performing feats of great strength that motherboards themselves are not designed to adequately perform. Bundles of twigs wrapped in duct tape should not be considered obligatory while building a high-end gaming PC.

Alas, computer hardware manufacturers have never been ones to cooperate. An NVidia graphics card manufactured by EVGA should be paired with a motherboard manufactured by EVGA, otherwise you run the risk, however so slight, that the drivers for each will start bickering just as you're about to beat the final boss of Dark Souls III or finish rendering an animation for your latest youTube video.

In the end, it's up to you. Can your current motherboard support the weight of your new graphics card? Do you have the engineering skills to prop it up with sticks or toys? Will the new card fit inside your current case?

Perhaps on top of recommending one brand over the other, the gurus of the PC master race should recommend carrying a ruler and a spring scale whenever it comes time to do some shopping.

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Building PCs, remodeling, and cooking since he was young, quasi-renowned trumpeter Christopher Thomas traveled the USA performing at and organizing shows from an early age. His work experiences led him to open a catering company, eventually becoming a sous chef in several fine LA restaurants. He enjoys all sorts of barely necessary gadgets, specialty computing, cutting-edge video games, and modern social policy. He has given talks on debunking pseudoscience, the Dunning-Kruger effect, culinary technique, and traveling. After two decades of product and market research, Chris has a keen sense of what people want to know and how to explain it clearly. He delights in parsing complex subjects for anyone who will listen -- because teaching is the best way to ensure that you understand things yourself.

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